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Asteroid Mining
Asteroid Mining or as some would call it, Asteroid Blasting, is an integral part of Battlestar Galactica Online's gameplay, and the only major means to earn what passes for currency here, as well as to gather resources for the player's personal use. The resources that can be found in asteroids are Titanium (essential for repairing ships, although the player can use cubits instead if they don't have any Titanium), Tylium (fictional fuel source that's vital for the enabling of space travel, FTL jumps, and a secondary currency), and Water (for cooling down an overheated radiator, showers, drinking material, water-balloon fights, or a barter item for cubits). Where to find them Asteroids can be found in every sector in the game. The health and amount of resources which are in the asteroids depend completely on the Threat Level of the Sector. Threat level 20 is best for fast and large resources, as well as numerous, but players have to be wary of other players and hostile high level NPCs. Threat levels 1-10 are safer but give less resources, probably best for new players who are just starting out. The best star system to mine in is whichever system Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama or Number Two/Leoben assigns to the player to recon as a daily assignment, as there will usually be some minerals of value...out of a few thousand scans, but don't worry, all good things come to those who wait... How to mine asteroids Mining asteroids is like having combat with the training drones in the tutorial, but the asteroids have a varying amount of health, some going up to as much as 2,000, so it would take a pretty long while. Once you are able to afford a secondary ship, it'll be a good idea to make one solely for the purpose of mining, and the other to be your primary combat vessel, as prospecting requires quite a few things in order to ease the process of mining, at the cost of combat-effectiveness. This means that if you're confined to only one ship alone, normally a Viper MK II , if you're starting out with the Colonials, or a Cylon Raider , if you're starting out with the Cylons, you would have a rather difficult choice to make as to what kind of role and purpose you would want for yourself as well as your chosen vessel. Given the fact that the starter ships tend to be rather limited in space and functionality, it would be best to find a Wing to join with first, and rely on more experienced players/friends to help with resource gathering until you have sufficient resources to procure another ship, then things should go more easily from there. Until then however, these are the basics you will need for the purpose of mining: * The Mining Cannons - The main and best method for whittling at the asteroids, as the mining cannons never runs out of ammunition, due to the fact that it uses the broken down chunks of asteroid rocks to replenish its own supply. While it's great at breaking asteroids into salvagable pieces, it's not effective in combat, because you're basically shooting bits of rock at your foe. This item is obviously installed in the Weapon Slot, and for faster mining, you can install more of the Mining Cannons, just remember that it's not effective in combat, so if you're going to fill all your weapon slots with them, make sure you have a few friends along to watch your back. * Mineral Analysis Module - Probably the most important item you'll need for asteroid/planetoid mining, because this is the system that enables you to see what goodies are hiding inside the rock. It costs a lot of power per scan, so if your chosen vessel is not good on power-recharging, like a Viper Mk II or the Cylon Raider, you'll have long gaps of waiting in between before you can scan rocks again. Both of these items can be procured at the vendors found in the Battlestar Galactica/Basestar, and Colonial/Cylon Outposts Once you have all your gear and equipment for mining, it's time to hit the asteroid fields. Remember, the Sectors with lower Threat Levels yield lower success rates as well as smaller amounts of resources per asteroid/planetoid, but you should have less interruptions from hostile NPCs and have fewer Same-Side Players to compete with. If you're a Gung-Ho fighter jockey and love being interrupted when the asteroid you're mining has only 10 HP left, then by all means, hit the Sectors with high Threat Levels. Once you're seated comfortably in an asteroid field, just select one of the rocks and scan away. Asteroid Mining.png|Mining a water asteroid What to look for in order of frequency found: *Red - Empty, zilch, nada, you can vent your frustrations by shooting it to pieces, but if you're using a normal autocannon, you'd be wasting precious bullets. *Yellow - Tylium (pronounced TEEL-EE-UM). *Purple - Titanium (pronounced TY-TAYN-EE-UM). *Blue - Water (slap yourself if you need me to tell you how to pronounce this word --> i slapped myself, ow). Mining strategies Here is a list of basic mining strategies that you can use (add more if have your own): #The most basic strategy for Strike crafts is to equip normal Autocannons and one Mining Cannon, and when you find a rock with something in it, disable the Combat cannons. This allows you to be able to fight on par with hostile NPCs when they come a'callin' to interfere with your prospecting. You'll still be at a disadvantage against enemy players as they most likely will be armed to the teeth with Combat Weapons. If you're using Strike crafts, you will only have up to a maximum of five Weapon Slots (with an upgraded Rhino, Viper MK VII, Marauder or Cylon War Raider) to play around with. Though new players won't get anything with that many Weapon Slots for quite a while, so based on that concept, that means there's only the Viper MK II, Raptor, Cylon Raider, or Cylon Heavy Raider, all of which have three Weapon Slots (four once you can upgrade them) available, and the main issue here is being able to mine as well as to defend yourself. For the time being, you'll have to contend with this recommended strategy: Equip your vessel with one Mining Cannon, and two Combat Weapons (Autocannons or Missile Launchers, your pick, though Autocannons are better even if they have slightly shorter range). Don't bother with Missile Launchers because really good players can shoot or dodge missiles with ease, and you'll be wasting warheads on them, unless you're very confident you'll only be faced with NPCs, then it's fine. If you're willing to risk it, you can always equip one Launcher, and keep the Autocannon and Mining Cannon, to give yourself a little range advantage and to spend all the accumulated warheads you've been collecting. #The next strategy only works if you have a team of friends who are willing to play escort/bodyguard duty while you mine for all of them (when grouped, the loot or spoils is shared, giving you less yields but at least you get protection). If you have friends with you, you can now afford to equip a second or even third Mining Cannon to speed up the mining process, though it's recommended that you still keep at least one Combat Weapon just in case things get really dicey and your friends aren't sufficient to keep the attackers off your back. It'll be good if your friends are able to have a mixture of ship classes so that they can deal with any threat of any kind. Then you can mine at Sectors with higher Threat Levels, 20 if you're crazy enough. Unfortunately, following Game Update 50, the resources gained by asteroid mining are no longer shared between squadron members so you may have a bit of difficulty getting people to act as your body guard/s. Category:Mining